Former President Donald Trump drew condemnation Monday after sharing, during celebrations of the Jewish New Year, a flier on his Truth Social platform asserting that liberal Jews who did not support him “voted to destroy America & Israel.”
The flier that Trump shared on Truth Social on Sunday evening – which marked the end of Rosh Hashanah – plays into the antisemitic trope that Jewish Americans have dual loyalties to the US and to Israel. The content of the flier appears to have initially been created by a group calling itself JEXIT, which encourages American Jews to leave the Democratic Party. The group’s website states that it is a nonprofit education organization.
“Let’s hope you learned from your mistake & make better choices moving forward! Happy New Year!” the flier reads.
The CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs called Trump’s post “antisemitic.”
“Trump marks the end of Rosh Hashana with an antisemitic post accusing Jews who voted against him of ‘destroy[ing] America & Israel,’” Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement to CNN that Trump was “playing into conspiracy theories about dual loyalty.”
“It is dangerous and wrong to suggest an entire segment of the Jewish population voted to destroy America and Israel,” Greenblatt said in the statement.
The American Jewish Committee posted on X: “Claiming that American Jews who did not vote for Mr. Trump voted to destroy America and Israel is deeply offensive and divisive. As we approach one year until the next election, we urge political candidates from the top to the bottom of the ballot to avoid incendiary rhetoric.”
Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, who is Jewish, said in a post on X: “Next time you attack American Jews, think twice before about doing it on one of our holiest days. Your antisemitism is loud & clear.”
Trump has a long history of criticizing Jewish American voters who do not support him and of playing into antisemitic tropes.
More recently, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, he criticized American Jews for what he argued was their insufficient praise of his policies toward Israel, including moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
In 2021, Trump claimed Jewish Americans “either don’t like Israel or don’t care about Israel,” while also suggesting that evangelical Christians “love Israel more than the Jews in this country.” In 2019, he accused Democrats of being part of an “anti-Israel” and “anti-Jewish party.” And during his first campaign for president, Trump delivered a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in which he repeatedly referred to the audience of Jewish donors as “negotiators.” He is scheduled to address the group’s annual leadership summit next month in Las Vegas.
Jewish Americans have for decades been a largely Democratic and politically liberal constituency, identifying with Democrats over Republicans by a wide margin, according to the Pew Research Center. While Orthodox Jews lean heavily Republican, American Jews of other denominations, including the Reform and Conservative branches, have identified with or leaned toward the Democrats.
CNN’s Kristen Holmes contributed to this report.
Source: www.cnn.com